Bronx Backyard Bird List

Backyard birdwatchers have it easy. They can just sit back on their fancy verandas sipping mint juleps while a cavalcade of birds flaunt themselves in succession. Urban birders actually have to leave their homes to spot anything but pigeons. However, thanks to a cosmic convergence of geography and good fortune, Mike once lived in an apartment from which interesting birds could actually be seen.

The picture above is the view from our living room window, what I see from the computer. We are five stories up and overlook a school. Beyond the luxury building in white is the Hudson River. That large tree in the foreground is a popular perch for all kinds of birds. The rules of this list are simple: we can only count birds we see from our apartment. We may move to a different window as long as it looks out over the same view. This Bronx Backyard bird list will be updated regularly as a testament to the unexpected biodiversity of our favorite borough.

There are now 36 birds on this list, with the latest one (Snow Goose) added December 8, 2006.